Adam F Posted April 30, 2007 Report Share Posted April 30, 2007 Well it was a bloody long day - 17 hours but worth it for the 5 boats and crew that trailed up to Burnham yesterday. An early start meant meeting at Tesco in Blandford for 6am, where Out of the Blue met with Neo, Fat Chance and Enticer - the convoy then rolled it's way down to Burnham for 7.45am just in time to meet the slick Burnham crew starting to launch into the river Parrett, the winds were light and the sun just burning through all looked good for an enjoyable day. Cimarra with Simon and Alun J were already there having stayed over the night before. With 9am saw about 20 boats gunning it full throttle down the river towards thier chosen marks. We were in a convoy of 6 boats who chose to fish about 2 miles West of Hinckley point. On OotB we had bits from the start with a steady steam of Thornbacks bringing smiles both both our faces. Well in short this continued really for most of the day on OotB and long story short we ended up with well over 40 rays, about a dozen conger and a nice bull huss of 9lb - non stop action!! The best ray went 9lb 12oz to my brother with most fish being in the 5-8lb mark. I'll let the others post thier catches. Back on the beach at high tide, the slick burnham operation had all boats retreaved from the slipway in under an hour for the presentation and raffle. Many thanks to Burnham Boats for a well organsised and enjoyable day, thanks to the 4 other boats and crew that made the effort and finally to Bob Fuller who is a star for towing OotB from Blandford to Burnham and then back to Verwood as my car is still in the garage - cheers mate. Up at 6am this morning and now off to Coventry - soooo tired! .... Piccies to follow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alun j. Posted April 30, 2007 Report Share Posted April 30, 2007 Well done Adam, you and everyone else who went did well and got amongst the rays........except us !! Having gained a bit of experience from this, my first trip there, I won't be as confident of getting rays from such shallow water..... 12-16 ft. when we anchored up [ with a couple of ebbibng hours to go] quickly disappeared to less than 5 ft. [and this is about 2 miles out!] Our 'Buddy boat' put us on this mark , with confidence of a mixed catch. A steady stream of action followed ...but was from numerous congers...... in the 3 - 12 lb range.......and more congers and no change when we repositioned .......in three more spots!! At one point on the start of the flood, we were invited to join them on the edge ot the bank in 4 ft. !! Radio reports of plenty of skate were teasing us........ but we stayed with our host ........... and continued to catch congers [ bright sunshine, six - 10 feet of water, conger !!!........new to me!]. Fantastic organisation and camaraderie in Burnham Boats who made us welcome and looked after us in their tricky beach conditions. Sorry I can't be around in two weeks to reciprocate. Alun. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
great white Posted April 30, 2007 Report Share Posted April 30, 2007 Nice one Guys Very glad you had a good day for it,and plenty of fish, shame more boats could not go. Alun the only reason you get eels in the shallow water is the murky water They just are totally unaware of the bright sunlight. Charlie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duncan Posted April 30, 2007 Report Share Posted April 30, 2007 Alun you are the last person I would have thought would spend a whole day focusing on light tackle shallow water congering - should have been great fun on 6lb gear well done to the team that made the trip - long day but I guess you trailers are used to that and it's good practice for the warmer summer days and that race for the launching ramps! there are still times I miss the adventure of new waters that trailering can provide Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul D Posted April 30, 2007 Report Share Posted April 30, 2007 Made the trip 2 years ago without much success. This year though was a whole new ballgame. Neo went Nuclear Left Christchurch at 5:15 AM, met up with the others at Blandford and then off to sunny Burnham. We launched and headed out past Hinkley Point to a bank where OOTB had already arrived with their buddy boat. No soon as we started Bob dropped a fish and then I caught a small conger ( first of many ). Bob then proceeded to catch a succession of thornies all around the 5lb mark. I had just the one ray before the tide slackened. In the meantime I was having trouble finding my car keys before realising that they were in my waders. Bob was repeating "Oh my god, oh my god" as he realised that the keys had been hanging from the pocket of my waders as he washed them down earlier over the side of boat ..... - phew ! As the tide turned it was staring to rough up a bit, so we headed with the local boats to a more sheltered mark close by the power station. Slow start but then the fishing came alive. This time I had a succession of rays ( mostly to the uptide rod ). Bob finished the day with a ray on each rod - accompanied by the "fish horn". Our best fish was much the same with rays of aorund 8lb 8oz ( Bobs was slightly bigger more like 9lb ). I also caught my first ever Bull Huss - they get rather aggressive don't they ! It is great fun being hooked into a fish and not knowing excatly what you have caught until it reaches the surface. Fishing in a sandy soup. Throughout the day we had been playing "Guess the water depth". The mark we were on has 18ft of water to start and when we left there was something like 38 ft of water. We then headed back for the slip with Neo skippered by Bob, who seemed quite impressed with the way the boat handled. Back at the slip even managed to retrieve Neo from the side of the slipway using Honda Civic power instead of tractor power. Fast trip home ( following Fat Chance ) arriving back in Christchurch around 9:45 PM Many thanks to th Burnham guys for an enjoyable day, Adam for arranging it all and to Bob for the good company throughout the day ( might have been different if he had lost my car keys and trailer lock key though ) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alun j. Posted April 30, 2007 Report Share Posted April 30, 2007 Duncan, You are right; I wouldn't have spent the day congering if I'd known better! Our buddy boat was convinced we'd find rays.........but few at our end of the bay found them......the cogers en mass found all baits first ......'twill be different next time! Odd spot.......... motoring out a few miles ........and you're in only 3 - 4 feet of water......and it all looks the same.........3 feet or 30 ! Charlie, You are familiar with the area......but I was amazed at the turbidity; how does anything find food and what is it? I scooped up a small bucket of water off the surface; in 10 mins it had dropped a hefty sediment on the bottom but was still pretty murky. I was wondering if the plankton that starts the food chains is greatly reduced with the lack of light ........but the amount of plankton 'debris' on the line sort answers the question.......so, apparantly not! Alun. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
great white Posted April 30, 2007 Report Share Posted April 30, 2007 Alun all the local beaches are sandy but below the mid tide line it turns to very soft grey mud. and the tide rise and fall is amongst the higest recorded anywhere. This give the sea that awful muddy colour [so fish hunt by sent.] and the massive tidal flows It does not effect the fishing too bad and is helped by huge worm beds on the mudflats and a very good population of crabs around places ike Hinkley point power station a lot of the small eels are feeding on the worms and crabs and rockfish. any well scented bait will usually work Charlie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Manic Moore Posted May 1, 2007 Report Share Posted May 1, 2007 Sorry about the late report, too much work and getting reading to shoot off to Thailand for 10 days for a fishing ... I mean family holiday Thanks to Adam for finishing off the organising of the day. I was making this trip with hopes of a better time than the last trip 2 years ago when I think we were the only boat that blanked. Plenty of bait, and we were hoping for a top tip from our buddy boat. Unfortunately it was not to be, we tried a couple of spots but only a couple of eels to show for all that effort. This time we not going to wait to see what came along. With Neo and OOTB catching rays we made the decision to move and within 5 minutes of anchoring we were into the thorn backs. Catching steadily Terry and I had approximately a dozen Rays each and a few congers to add a bit of fun. All in all it was a long day but a great change and I really enjoyed my first successful use of the uptide rod which 80% of my fish came on. Thanks for your company again Terry, sorry about the cooker Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul D Posted May 1, 2007 Report Share Posted May 1, 2007 What happened to the cooker Gordon ? We had a similar story with regard to the fish coming to the uptide rod. BTW: How did Fat Chance get on - I didn't hear if they had got into the rays as well. ( If not I have a theory as to why ! ) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
plaicemat Posted May 1, 2007 Report Share Posted May 1, 2007 Paul, the cooker wouldn't work in the windy conditions, even when it was shielded. So, no bacon rolls , no tea . but, we managed to still have a good time and made up on orange juice and sausage rolls. May not have been so sanguine if we hadn't been catching fish steadily! Terry. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adam F Posted May 2, 2007 Author Report Share Posted May 2, 2007 You need a new cooker Gord - on OotB we manged several sets of bacon and egg baps and hot tea in between fish - the old cooker working fine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
plaicemat Posted May 2, 2007 Report Share Posted May 2, 2007 That's it, rub it in, you swine! Terry. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gnasher Posted May 3, 2007 Report Share Posted May 3, 2007 you swine! Terry doing hos Russel Brand impression Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
conger king Posted May 3, 2007 Report Share Posted May 3, 2007 did no one catch a tope or spupdog as there are loads of these in the bristol channel ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
plaicemat Posted May 3, 2007 Report Share Posted May 3, 2007 I doubt there's room for any, what with all the rays and congers. Terry. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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